1991 tail lights out

duggy wrote in news:ePKgb.26895$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews6.bellsouth.net:

Nevermind. I did a Google search and found out about the yellow Lamp Failure box. Checked it, and the board has a wire that burned until it split, much like the wire of a fuse does. I will post a question about this box in a new thread titled Lamp Failure Box.

thanks

duggy wrote in news:Xns940D5FEF0E3ENOSPAMhomecom@204.127.199.17:

Well, I ended up not needing to ask the question, so I'll just post here how I solved my problem for any future Googlers. I read a thread about soldering the broken burned wires back together, and thought I'd give it a try. I guess I probably could have laid a blob of sodder material big enough to bridge the gap of the broken wire, but I didn't do that. Instead, I found an old circuit board from a dead computer mouse, and ripped off one of the little wires with the rubber piece in the center (if you look at the Lamp Failure Box, you'll see them all over and know what I'm talking about). It probably had about an 3/16" wire protruding from each side. I laid that piece down next to the broken wire, with the rubber center piece next to the gap in the wire that needed repair, and the wire at the ends of the piece curved so they touched (or were very close) to each side of the wire that needed repair. Then I applied the solder material to connect each side where the repair piece touched the broken piece. A union was thus created, and after plugging the box back in, Wa La!, I have a working Lamp Failure Box.

You gotta love the internet.

Well done,...makes one think about the situation that arose in the first place to damage the LFB tho.

Jason

"Jason James" wrote in news:lFYgb.141996$ snipped-for-privacy@news-server.bigpond.net.au:

I suspect that was yours truly plugging in a 1257 bulb into a 1256 socket (or vice versa) to test it. I wasn't aware you could burn out the Lamp Failure Box board doing this until I browsed the old posts with Google. Hell, I didn't even know about the Lamp Failure Box.

The solder didn't hold very long. I'm not good at it, and couldn't get the melted solder to completly engulf both the patch wire and the original wire, so when it heated up with use, it fell off. It looks like a trip to the junkyard may be in order. For my second attempt I scrounged a longer piece of wire to patch it with, this time twisting them at the connection point between original and patch. Then at the other end I completely removed the other half of the original because it wasn't attached well anyway, and I extended the patch wire through the board hole and soldered it. Only problem is now almost all the brake lights come on with the tail lights, although they do become brighter when I hit the brakes so it's still a functional situation. It probably has to do with using to big a glob of solder where I stuck the wire through the hole, and it may have bleeded over to a point where it shouldn't have. I have to make it fairly big just because the original damage to the board had made the pin hole bigger. But I'm going to try to reduce the glob and see if it makes a difference.

When I pulled the board after a test drive, it was warm. I don't know how hot it is supposed to get under normal conditions. I may take my parents

92 on a similar drive and see how warm the LFB gets. I'm not sure its as easily accessed on their car, however. I'll google to find out where it is on that car. It's interesting to try and fix this board, though. If I had known it would actually work, I might have put more effort into my first attempt.

duggy wrote in news:PbShb.780$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews4.bellsouth.net:

For the record, I wasn't able to fix the problem with the soldered box, but now it appears the soldering wasn't the problem. Whatever the cause, all the brake lights remain on (albeit dimmer than when hitting the brake pedal) when the tailights are turned on, and when I replaced the repaired box with a working one from a junkyard, the problem remained. So I'm guessing this is a symptom of a bad ground somewhere. Probably not something I'll be able to track down on my own being a novice, so it looks like I'll be ponying up some bucks to someone. Damn.

In the meantime, at least the car is usable. I just hope I'm not making things worse by running the lights this way. I try not to drive it at night.

Have you inspected the harnass feeding the tail/brake lights where it runs past the trunk lid hinges for chaffing thru the wire(s) insulation?

"Philip ®" wrote in news:ymZmb.3423$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Only a cursory look. I unwound some electrical tape and took a peek, but I'll have to really get close in with a flashlight and examine them. Thanks for the nudge. I need to get at it.

Often, the wire insulation is not broken, but, the wires within are. In such a case you may notice a slightly discolored and pinched point in the insulation.